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I'm pleased to announce that my paper entitled “Early History of Library Science Education in the Province of Ontario, Canada” was recently accepted as an entry to the IFLA conference, “History of Librarianship.” It will take place on August 25th and 26th, 2014, in Lyon, France. I will be presenting on August 26th.

The presentation consists of a historical and feminist analysis of the forces and ideals that shaped the education for librarianship in the province between 1911 and 1964. It is also an attempt to enrich the existing scholarship on the history of women’s contributions to the theoretical and intellectual basis of our profession. In particular, I will describe the achievements of Dr. Winifred Barnstead (1884–1985) and Dr. Bertha Bassam (1896–1989), the first two directors of the University of Toronto Library School.

The presentation is based on a research project that was conducted while I was a graduate student of Library and Information Science at the Faculty of Information in the winter semester of 2012.

University of Toronto Schools, 1920.Beginning in 1928, the building housed the University of Toronto Library School, the first academic institution dedicated to the training of librarians in Ontario.Wikimedia Commons.